Under the Big Top

We don't get invited to too many first birthday parties now that our kids are "big," but on Saturday, we went to baby Nicholas's first birthday bash. The party was circus themed and Belinda went all out. This party was amazing and my pictures don't do the party decorations justice, but hopefully you can get a feel for how awesome this party was. You also can't really tell how many people were at this party, but it was HUGE. We had a fantastic time and are so glad we were a part of Nicholas's big day!

The enormous pinata from behindThe tablescapeCutest cake ever!Waiting for a balloon catHilarious clown = lots and lots of laughterBlue balloon cat

Belinda's backyard looked incredible! She had six carnival games set up, two bounce houses, about six or seven tents with tables and chairs underneath, and even a tent for the little ones to crawl around in. I didn't take a picture of the food table, but it was piled high with sausage, brisket, potato salad, baked beans and chips. YUM!!!

There was so much to do outside (even if the weather was a steamy 1oo degrees!).

A bounce housePlaying the carnival games

At this table, you could trade in your tickets from the carnival games for prizes like cotton candy, pinwheels or clown noses. So fun!Belinda even had an adorable photo booth set up! It took us a few minutes to get ready, mostly because Henry wasn't sure about having his picture taken.

And finally, a cute picture of my boys and me! According to the boys, the best part of any party is always the cake!

The party was just a tad busy, so I didn't manage to snap a photo of the adorable birthday boy or his big sisters Chloe and Bella. They were too busy running around having a ball, just like everyone else! Happy first birthday, baby Nicholas!

The Letter Y

Y is for yarn and yogurt and the color yellow. Last week, the boys were super excited to go to our favorite frozen yogurt spot, so we choose a hot and sunny afternoon (which not hard to do as they are all hot and sunny!) and headed out to Yogurtland.
Yum! It's really the best frozen yogurt around -- creamy, self-serve and cheaper by ounce than the other self-serve spots! Delish!For our craft project, we decided to make a yarn egg. We followed the instructions to dip pieces of yarn in glue and wrap them around the balloon.It was a very sticky project but Will had fun doing it. After the glue dried, you were supposed to pop the balloon and the yarn would remain in the shape of an egg. Our yarn collapsed with the balloon, so we had no egg to show for all our work! Fail!We kept the yarn out all week, though. Will liked playing with it. Henry covered his lowercase y in yarn and we read Keith Baker's Just How Long Can a String Be?! And to celebrate yellow, we covered the capital Y with yellow stickers and read In My New Yellow Shirt by Eileen Spinelli. I loved this book because the main character is Will! In his new yellow shirt, the little boy can be a firefly or a banana or a submarine underwater. Will's favorite color is yellow and, like the little boy in the book, he has an amazing imagination. What a great story! We had a wonderful Y week! And now we're on to Z!

A Playdate and Two Cowboys

Yesterday morning, we went to the park down the street from our house for a Kindergarten playdate! Will got to meet a few kids who will be entering K in the fall and I got to chat with some of the moms. Since we are newish to the neighborhood and don't know that many people, I thought it was a great idea! There are three more playdates scheduled this summer and we can't wait.

Both boys had fun, even though it was hot, hot, hot (even at 9 am!).
After the playdate, I hustled my cowboys over to gymnastics class.

It was Wild West day, so you know we had to wear our cowboy hats! The boys kept those hats on the whole time. Will even did forward rolls while wearing the hat!

Here's to summer fun!

over the past few days

the boys have discovered NuttZo

it's their new favorite nut butter

and it's a combination of about 6 different nuts and seeds

serious yum

Henry has climbed on the patio furniture

like a monkey or an acrobat

I've eaten bowls and bowls of oatmeal

always topped with fresh fruit, granola sprinkles,

maybe some wheatberries and a generous scoop of nut butter

it is my newest obsession

and I eat it hot, like this,

or I make overnight oats in the fridge

to enjoy cold in the morning

like this

best. breakfast. ever.

we've done some coloring

in art coloring books from Gramma and Grampa

big boys helpers sorted the recycling

all goes well until Henry decides not to follow Will's plan

and then there is some yelling

and speaking of yelling,

Baby went to time out for fighting with his brother

but someone brought him a balloon so he wouldn't be too lonely

we've made some goofy faces

all the while covered in sidewalk chalk

what have you been up to the last few days?

Summer Days

The boys and I are loving summer break! The boys have been absolutely inseparable lately. Even after being together all day long, we catch Henry, almost every night, sneaking into his brother's room with the excuse of "but I really like Will!" I admit that I do sometimes miss my free time (especially if there are very naughty boys around), but mostly I am loving our long summer days together. There's plenty of time for playdates, trips to libraries and museums, or staying in our jammies for half the day!

Can you guess where I took the boys this afternoon? We ventured out to the Menil to see some art! They liked it, but the MFAH is still their fave art museum.

And on the days we stay at home, the boys love to work on their letters. They are downright obsessed lately! Every morning, the very first thing Henry wants to do (sometimes even before eating breakfast, and we all know how he likes to eat!) is his Hooked on Phonics. We are already on the letter G! This morning he made this awesome G out of grass. Love it!


And Will's newest favorite activity is spelling! Here he had spelled out buzz the best he could with his three-letter flip book. He was also busy tracing words in and then reading from one of his HOP story books. Here Will was showing Henry how to spell words that ended in -ig. He spelled wig and had already done pig, dig, fig, and big! See how he rocks his purposely mismatched jammies? It's the new cool thing to do at our house. And speaking of my big boy, can I tell you how proud I am of Will? We just found out that he qualified for the Gifted and Talented program at school next year. I wasn't sure how it would go because we got the second-to-last spot for testing and it happened to be at 1 pm, which is not an ideal time. Then Will didn't want to go talk to the teacher. And then he came home and told me all about the questions she asked. He said there were lots of hard words he didn't know, he couldn't remember where his wrist was, and he thought Snow White lived with 17 dwarfs! Well, I needn't have worried because Will did great! He scored a 95 out of a possible 100 (and you only need 68 to get into the program). We are all SO proud of our big boy and know he is absolutely going to flourish next year in Kindergarten! In the meantime, I need to enjoy my summer days with my sweet boys because I am sure going to miss them when school starts up again!

Pop Can Cook!

Pop invited us over for dinner on Saturday night. Nana was still out of town, so I figured we'd be eating take-out. Boy, was I wrong! We arrived to a counter full of appetizers and then we watched as Pop sauteed shrimp in garlic butter, served rice with carrots and sausage, set out crusty bread and opened a bottle of wine. All we provided was steamed green beans, fresh from the farm! Thanks for the great meal, Pop! You can cook for us anytime!